Fiji's "Social Experiment," the "Sunset Clause" and the Retreat to the Laager

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"Parts of a social experiment based on a thesis of a college student. wanting to play God." -- Jope Koroisavu in Facebook, referring to Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum's masters thesis.

Jope is one of many on the social media who think any criticism of traditional Taukei institutions is an attack on Taukei.  Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum is their main enemy but even Taukei who differ are in their firing line. They cannot —or will not—accept that change is essential if ordinary Taukei are to reach their economic potential, and that some criticism is good criticism. Their position is shared with many in SODELPA, and is a most useful tool in Opposition. Retreat to the laager of encircling drua (canoe). Help! We are under attack by a FijiFirst government with lots of Indo-Fijian ministers.


In the thesis Sayed-Khaiyum wrote of the needs of national unity and Taukei adapting traditional institutions to the 21st century (the "sunset clause").

Those opposing FijiFirst write of this as an attack on Taukei, failing to recognize that for over 60 years numerous influential people have written of the need for traditional Taukei  institutions to change if they are to prosper economically.

They  include Oskar Spate (The Fijian People, the Spate Report 1959), anthropologist Dr Rusiate Nayacakalou (former advisor to the Great Council of Chiefs and Manager, Native Land Trust Board, whose views on tradition were also sometimes mistaken as an attack on indigenous sovereignty) and former Vice-President Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi, probably the most esteemed chief in modern Fiji history,  in a great number of his addresses.

--ACW